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The Plus 8 Upgrade

I learned this exercise from Martha Beck, which is right up a conscious creator’s alley for upgrading the vibration.

If you engage this challenge, you will guaranteed raise your vibration at least a couple notches up the scale, and some will experience a complete energetic transformation.

Here’s how it works:

Make a list of everything you anticipate doing over the next week. Not just the things you’d put on a to-do list, but everything you’re planning on doing.

That could include grocery shopping, laundry, work, lunch with a girlfriend, a Netflix night, a weekend walk in the park – whatever you see coming up over the next seven days.

Once your list is complete, one by one rate each item from a -10 to +10 based on how you feel about it. Negative 10 being pure torture (this is your idea of a living hell) and plus 10 being complete bliss (it doesn’t get any better than this).

As you review your list, Martha challenges us to eliminate everything that falls below a +8.

A plus eight, you guys. !!

Anything less than that has to go.

I often talk with folks who don’t even have anything above a plus five on their list.

So this can feel like big work.

But you can sense the power in committing to it, right?

Because releasing anything that you don’t LOVE gives your life a huge upgrade.

And that’s an effective way to manage the vibe.

For those of you wondering how to drop the things you don’t love (as in, someone’s got to cook this dinner for these kids! And I can’t quit going to this job!) you might find help here and here. Starting with the easy stuff can create good momentum for handling the more challenging items.

So it’s pretty simple:

Make a list

Rate each item

Drop the negatives and the lower positives until your life is filled with nothing but plus 8s and above.

Aniket,
Try moving it to a better feeling place by using gratitude and appreciation. Move you attitude to your job up the emotional scale. Doesn’t have to feel great about the whole thing just focus on the good stuff you can find. Maybe your job is easy for you to do? Perhaps it’s easy to get to? Perhaps your job pays some bills and gives you money to eat? That moves it up the scale. You must have some encounters when you enhance people’s experience by your actions? Surely that moves it up the scale too? Surely you are great at certain parts of your job? Just keep looking for the positives and the negatives diminish. I’ve used it myself in the bleakest of situations – it works if you practice the appreciation.

As an adult who’s spent years as a kid in an emotionally abusive environment, I would say to follow number four in the “toss out tolerations” article.
“4. Dance with it (transform how you experience it)”http://goodvibeblog.com/toss-out-tolerations/
Obviously that method is harder than the others, but if you can manage to change your own mindset when in the negative environment, it’ll be worth it.

My response would be – be gentle with yourself. It takes mastery to life a life of 8+ every day and I would guess that even the masters have days where they do 1, 2, and maybe even -1 and -2. If living +8 every day feels too big, then attempt to increase the number of items on your list to add a few new +8 and maybe eliminate one or two negative numbers. The whole purpose of life is to grow – we don’t have to get there overnight, but I have learned baby steps with the Universe pay off exponentially! Keep your day joy and add a +8 activity to it and then report back – I would LOVE to hear what happens!

I think this can be very helpful, Amina … to approach it with the intention to just making easy upgrades where we can, one at a time, over time – rather than expecting a complete life overhaul in one fell swoop. 🙂

4. If you drop an item that is below a certain threshold (you gave an 8, and people may choose 6 or 7, whatever they are comfortable with), but you really want to do it, because you do see positives and value in it, but there’s resistance that is keeping it from meeting your new high vibrational standard, then instead of dropping it, find a way to raise it. Give it a raise.

Come into alignment with it. Do a separate list, and focus on the positive, good feeling aspects of that activity that you want to do or think you should do. Line up with your decision.

Then, when you pay attention to how you feel, and you do feel better about that activity than you did just 10 – 15 minutes ago, and you are in alignment with it and now it’s an 8, now it can go back on your list.

I love applying magic to these situations. So, here is what I would do (I too need my bathroom cleaned and also need to do taxes)… I turn it over to the Universe and say… Universe this needs to magically get done. And, then watch to see what happens. In the case of my bathroom, our homecare nurse (for my grandmother) cleaned it for me! Voila! My taxes… well, I will keep you posted… but there are magical solutions for everything. Rather than focus on the “not doing” the +8 activities, focus on how you can change looking at anything that is not a +8 to either a) raise up to +8 or b) miraculously disappear off the to do list – easily and effortlessly!

If there is something you really hate doing, is there a way you can empower someone who loves that type of thing to do it for you? For example, my accountant does my taxes. It’s what he loves to do so I empower him by allowing him to do something he loves doing. Same for cleaning.

Ok, first of all I never claimed to be running at plus 8 exclusively myself! lol

BUT, I will say this, I have a great song for scooping litters and picking up dog poop out back. Some of my neighbors have probably heard it. It’s called “Scoopin’ ze Poopin’.” And you cannot sing it without smiling.

But also, I’ve had these two foster kittens – and they think it is the high point of their day – well, we actually do it twice a day – but they think this is PLAY TIME! They’re like, hey, Jeannette’s ready to play in the litter with us now! And they jump in and they are so freakin’ cute that you don’t even need the song to be having fun in that moment. They are a-freakin’-DORABLE!

Okay, but I have not achieved full time exclusive plus 8 living, Jen!! lol Not by a long shot. Just today I went to the salon to have my hair done, and that is at best a plus 2 event for me. (I love the results, but I am not a huge fan of sitting in a chair for that long.) I don’t make myself do things I don’t love, so I don’t have a lot of negatives on my list – but I’ve got low positives that could use attention. What I did today with the salon visit was to intend “even better” and bliss. (Because I forgot to bring a book which is usually how I enjoy that time.) In fact, I posted in the GVU forums tonight as a manifesting success. It worked like a charm!

I totally agree with you about the power of realizing we’re CHOOSING this instead of feeling like we HAVE TO do it. That in itself can be a game-changer! In fact, I used that for a while when I kept that job I didn’t like. I reminded myself why I was choosing it, and that helped take a lot of the sting off while I worked on creating reasons that made me feel more comfortable to quit. 🙂

I have a funny story about this… my boyfriend went to a friend’s house to visit. He misses his cat a lot. So, while there, he on his own (without asking his friend… which at the time I thought was a little strange) cleaned out the litter box. When you decide what you want, the Universe will send you someone who actually misses it (though, I am guessing he just misses his cat and not the actual act of scooping the litter box – but in that moment, it actually brought him joy).

Scooping the cat litter became a +8 for me after my cat had a UTI years ago. I realized something was wrong because she kept peeing in the bathtub – she had associated her litterbox with the pain. After we got her fixed up, I was so happy to clean the litter box – so much less work than cleaning the bathtub with bleach! Nearly every time I scoop, I thank my kitty for using the box and making my life so easy. It always feels really good.

I disliked washing the dishes before but now I listen to music and dance a little while washing the dishes so it’s like my music time. Or when I’m really not in the mood I just leave them and someone else might wash it.

I know not everyone can do this, but dishes stacked up=Yuck! We used to wash the lot even after a dinner party Now we have a dishwasher which came as a present.
Hate ironing so send it out to a fabled mystical Chinese ironing shop (otherwise my husband, who believes I can’t iron (ha ha) does it)
Housework? I have a couple of magical people who do that too.

Ask and ye shall receive! Even for everyday stuff. I get on with what I do best and all of us are happy. My helpers like what they do and do it well, I like what they do too.

We are TOTALLY using this for the JOY CHALLENGE… And, by the way, I did this only with my “to do” list and nothing made a +8… guess that means I am not “doing” anything this weekend except watching XFiles (+10), sleeping (+10) and going to dinner with a friend (+9 – only because it involves leaving the house and therefore changing out of PJs). Thanks for this post, Jeanette! And, if people want to join the 30 Day Joy Challenge – here is the link (+1,000,000)! http://www.lunchwithcinderella.com/

Amina, you can probably tell from some of these comments just how much people will benefit from your Joy Challenge!! I guess I’ve taken for granted so much of the work I’ve done over the years to liberate myself from the “don’t loves” and “shoulds.”

Oh Karen!!! – you could have SO MUCH FUN with this one! Say out loud, “I, Karen, choose to drop grocery shopping, laundry and scrubbing floors” and then tell us what happens! It would be cool to see how the Universe surprises you. And, while you are at it, I would add in, “I, Karen, choose to get a check in the mail for $10,000”. Why not? If we are playing, let’s play full out!

I have dropped grocery shopping off my list. It’s a great thing to do, don’t be afraid. You can stop by new stores on the walk home, or new restaurants, there’s so much more than storing food in a fridge at home. Idk, this is something that has bettered my life quality for sure.

I’ve been focusing too much on my last year of high school and my career to be too into this stuff, but I am still loving to read this articles! They’re perfect to help stay track of my mental state lol.

Like a lot of people mentioned, I have something I have to do next week that I am not looking forward to. I’m an American living in Spain and next week I have to take my Spanish driver’s license exam. I’ve had to study for months to prepare, and lately it has felt like pure hell. So I love the suggestion for coming into better alignment with the idea. Because of course I want my Spanish drivers license — to be safe and legit, to be able to have adventures, show my American guests around, etc. It should feel like a +8 to finally be able to make real progress with this goal! Love the idea and exercise. Thanks as usual for your super helpful posts.

I can relate to a lot of people’s pushback on this one… and it may be the word “eliminate” when it’s referred to tolerations. Sure, eliminating some of the things that we simply tolerate in our lives would be nice… but not always so do-able. And that’s where the other piece of it comes in. If we can’t eliminate the job or cooking meals or doing laundry or having to deal with certain family members, we can decide to not simply tolerate it by changing how we think about it.

I can find something to appreciate about my job (money), cooking meals (having good food to eat), doing laundry (having clean clothes to wear) and family members (something about them that really is lovable).

Even turning “she’s so freaking demanding” around to “she really knows what she wants” can help me feel better. Then I no longer have to just tolerate her when I can see something positive inside. I feel a lot better… and that’s what raises my vibration.

I was trying to think back to the time when I wrote out my list. The thing that surprised me was that there weren’t that many things that I ‘hated’ to do. Sure I have the same responsibilities as the next person and I was in a %^Load of contrast at that time. But I think what this exercise did for me was have me take a look at what was going on RIGHT in my life and that i was able to do these things.

Maybe it helped me put a little more gratitude and joy into the things that were an 8. Maybe it was a way to show me hey, you can get through this. It was a joy to take care of my aging dog, waking up at 430am every morning to take her out for 2 straight years was a JOY not something that I hated.

Working 3 jobs to put food on my table, well, actually there were many parts of that I appreciated. (sometimes I look back and can’t believe I did all that LOL)

So haha, I think this exercise actually helped me . Thanks for bringing me back to look at where I came from !

Martha Beck has another solution for those tasks that are less than a +8. It’s the 3 B’s: Bag it, Better it or Barter it. For every task that is less than desirable we can bag it (ditch it entirely), if that’s not possible we can better it (by finding some way to make it more joyful/fun/easy) or barter it (negotiate a trade of money, time or talent for it.

Bettering your taxes might be planning on taking small chunks of time to take it in baby steps, putting on music and lighting a candle, having a treat while you do it. Baby steps for me and my taxes means the first day I gather all my stuff. The next day I organize the stuff. From there I take it in bite sized pieces until it’s done. This way I’m not overwhelmed for a day of drudgery, rather an hour or two at a time at most. Plan a celebration when you mail it.
Bartering your taxes is when you scoop up your files and take it to your tax person.

So some ways to bring the vibration up to a +8 involves inching it up over time. It’s helpful when in a job you dislike to see what pieces are at what – and + level. You may actually enjoy certain areas of work. Then you can deal with the pieces that you dislike:tasks/location/office set up/people that are less than +8 and start to find ways to bag, better or barter those pieces.

This is one way to see if one area of work is giving you the most stress. There are ways of negotiating those pieces to your betterment. What areas are working and which are really annoying. Perhaps find a way to concentrate more time on those pieces that are most enjoyable. They’re probably the pieces where your strengths are used which can lead to more of the same tasks and even promotion or negotiating a move to a better dept. or office.

An example of bettering might be job sharing. Bartering might be trading tasks with someone whose strengths are different than yours.

One example of bettering is to take a drudge writing job like a report and do it in a coffee shop. When cleaning the house think of it as nurturing your home to add beauty and order….so use wonderful smelling products, put on fab music, do a corner at a time and add flowers as a reward.

It doesn’t have to jump to an 8 overnight, it can be progressive. But knowing what tasks are weighing us down is invaluable information.
Thanks for this Jeannette. You’ve inspired me to do some weighing!

I love this! I agree totally. It is not an all or nothing – but an activity to raise our awareness and know that there are people (many of whom have commented) that are living this. If they can, we all can. It is a process that may take a few hours, a few weeks or a few years – but it is possible for all of us to get to +8! Great practical steps to get there – thanks for sharing!

I had another thought so I had to chime in again! I love this exercise because not only does it raise your vibe level, but It gets you to think about the things that you do each and every day. I run into people who seem so stuck in what they do, they can’t think of other options. For example I used to shop at our local grocery store in one big expedition -3, and one day It dawned on me after coming out of that store growling and spitting because it it is such a depressing and frustrating place to shop, there are lots of other options! My grocery shopping now consists of going to many different stores for short stops, +8! Switching my grocery shopping has allowed me to discover some new and fabulous places to shop that I never would have otherwise. Laughter and happiness, Danielle

Good morning, I just now read the upgrade post. I decided to start with a baby step by just thinking about all the things that are on my agenda for today. Granted it is a weekend day so maybe that makes it easier. I discovered that every single thing on my list is a plus nine or plus 10! Maybe that would be a good way to start if somebody is struggling with this exercise. Choose a weekend day and just write down the things for that day since most of us tend to have more freedom on our weekends to choose what we do. I’m going to do the full exercise tonight. Laughter, happiness, and mucho moola, danielle

I pretty much love and adore most aspects of my life, even what others consider to be chores. I was houseless for awhile, so it’s a joy to maintain our own home . . . plus I see it as a form of exercise, which gives me a twofer for yardwork, vacuuming, etc.

Here’s a process that helped me immeasurably when I wasn’t besottedly in love with my life:

Micro-visualizations.

I think Abraham calls it pre-paving.

Right before I do something I’m unsettled about I take anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute or two to get very clear on what the ideal would feel like.

Once I get a sense of it, and let that feeling wash through me for just a short bit, then I’m ready to plunge in.

If you do this throughout the day, I swear within a month your life will be radically different. To the point it will feel like you’ve stepped into a new reality.

I credit this process to easing my way into the life I live now, the life I’m so thrilled to be living.

Thanks Jeannette for sparking the best conversations on the Internet 🙂

So lovely to see you sharing your thoughts and experience here, Evan. Thanks for your post!

Agreed that pre-paving is super freakin’ powerful, and also that a different perspective can be a game-changer for the vibe, too.

This might seem like a random share, but I get such enormous satisfaction from cleaning that one of my favorite jobs was as a maid. LOVED it. To this day, making the bed and vacuuming floors and putting away clothes is highly satisfying for me. Before I had a house with a dishwasher in it, I loved doing dishes by hand, too. It really is meditative. (Although I rely on the dishwasher now.) lol

In the Success Principles, Jack Canfield, also talks about clearing out your irritations and tolerations to open up the path for success. Here is a link to a worksheet to identify those negative numbers or +1-6 numbers and think about creative solutions to eliminate them from your to-do list! Remember – you can ask for help! There is someone who loves to do the thing you do not love to do and vice versa! https://jackcanfield.com/images/stories/April2011-Ask-Jack-Homework.pdf

Originally, it was a process for me. Baby steps. Eating the elephant one bite at a time of what had been a pretty miserable life of low level existence in just about every area.

Now that I’ve been through the process, it’s almost instant. You really can shift things in your life when you Intend. I made a radical change in geography last November to raise the level of my surroundings and things are unfolding in front of me miraculously. It’s happening….right before my eyes! In a very small town!

Go with your intuition – http://adbl.co/1R5OjDp – that very first “blink,” minus (prior to) any conscious analysis. The very first whiff of what you feel or sense. Go with that and raise your vibe and life will shift around you.

You’ve heard this a lot: “If it can happen for me….it can happen for you too!”

What I’ve been doing lately, and it’s really made me either laugh or get through my to-do list with a much better attitude, is to use the time to focus on what I want, not specifically what I’m doing at the moment. For example, I want the kitchen to be clean and sparkly because it makes me feel good, so as I’m doing the dishes, I hold the picture of that bright, shiny kitchen in my mind! Seeing the end result makes me smile…seeing dirty dishes doesn’t. Replace the focus with the good-feeling end result. Works for me!! Thanks for the awesome post, Jeanette! : )

I do something similar to this when I’m doing dishes. I take the opportunity to be doing them in my dream house. Because the view from the sink is so divine, I think every opportunity to stand there would be awe-inspiring…….so I just pretend away……that opportunity to dwell in what’s becoming. And, poof…..they’re done!

That’s awesome, Amanda! I do that, too! I take those little slices of the day – like the time spent doing dishes or other chores – and just do nothing but think about my dream career, my dream home, etc. and then boom! The chore or whatever is done and I was able to raise my vibe by visiting my dream goals! I bet you’re going to be in your dream house sooner than you think!!

In fact, I’m employing a similar one this weekend as my last two kittens are likely being adopted on Sunday, and I know I’ll miss them tremendously when they go, but when I focus on how this makes room for the next kittens, and that these guys deserve a proper forever home of their own, it makes the whole process of taking them to them to meet their potential adopters much easier.

AND the fact that you took such good care of them to give them such a great start to their great life with their great family! What a heart-warming experience to be such an important part of peoples’ lives (and the kittens’ lives, too!) Quite simply, the process couldn’t work w/out you and your love for animals.

Your story helps me to focus on the fact that others are depending on me, too, and the process wouldn’t work that well w/out me!

Even if it’s doing chores or working at a job we’re not in love with…our contributions matter more than we may ever know.

I hadn’t even got around to making the list (because, well, making the list itself sort of felt like a “5” — LOL) when I got bogged down by the idea of grocery shopping — vibe: “1” … How could I eliminate that?
I needed to go to two different places, and I really didn’t even want to go outside today …
But, miraculously, the first store got eliminated when I found I actually had the item I wanted in the back of the cupboard. This meant I only had to do Trader Joe’s, and immediately the vibe jumped up to “6” …
Then I saw on facebook that my step-daughter was drooling over TJ’s jelly beans, and I realized how much FUN it would be to get her some, so the shopping number automatically went up a couple of notches! …

This is funny, Quilly, that we both had some shopping we weren’t looking forward to. I came home last night and realized I had no kombucha for tomorrow. Which I really like my kombucha tea! So I was feeling out which option felt better … skip it and have none for the a.m., or just go now and get stocked up. (I ruled out having someone else make the run for me, since it was kind of late to ask someone else to go.)

But the easy way to amp this one up was to ask the dogs if they wanted to go for a ride. Of COURSE they did! They were so excited to pile into the car, and the weather’s gotten nice enough to roll the window down for Koda to hang his head out – it was quite a nice outing.

If I can get dogs in on the event, I’m guaranteed to enjoy it much more. 🙂

I always loved doing my taxes. But this year I had to procrastinate until I got into the right vibe, then it was super easy. YET, I do have a bunch of things I’m doing half-heartedly, especially because I am pulled in different directions with my kids all day. I like a good flow, so I am working that great timing for all I do in here, but dropping some of the tolerations is definitely going to happen now. I am cleaning up my house more and finding more happiness as I go–that is one thing that really seems to put me in a good state. Having that clean and uncluttered living space. I’m affirming that I am keeping up with the happy vibe while I’m cleaning, feeling some pride that I got what I wanted to done, and satisfied that my life is so awesome. Then I’m not irritated that my house isn’t clean when I’m with my kids, and I don’t spoil BOTH situations. Instead, I am feeling happy already, and so thankful for the pick me up.

Some of these comments made me think of a book I had when I was a kid, where the child was complaining about the chores he had to do.

“Why do I have to make the bed if I’m just going to sleep in it again?”

“Why do I have to clean my room if it just gets dirty again?”

The mother would tell him “We make the bed to thank (God) that we have a safe place to sleep. We clean up our house to show gratitude that we have a nice place to live.” (I’m para-phrasing. I can’t even remember the name of this book, but I wish I could find it for my kids.) The point is you can do anything from +8 place.

Dirty laundry=you have clothes to wear.
Job you hate= You are employed (many people still struggle to find work) and you have money coming in.
Cleaning the toilet=you have indoor plumbing and a place to live.
Changing diapers=you have a sweet baby to take care of or
Scooping the litter box=you have a fur baby. 🙂

Anyway that perspective really helps me when I don’t feel like cleaning, cooking dinner or whatever else. Once I get to a place of gratitude I actually enjoy doing those things. I get into a very calm, almost meditative kind of place when I’m cleaning. It can be very relaxing and mood shifting.

While, in theory, this seems like a grand task to undertake,
eliminating the pesky things that maybe diminish ‘all joy all the time’ may perhaps, be unrealistic. Like, for example, even the person who ‘has it all’ may hate to exercise, but there’s no way to take that off the table if you’re going to gain the benefits of exercise.
Maybe what’s more effective, to leap over the hurdle, is having
some big joy things in place that lift up and make pesky little things not a big deal? Like being happily in love. That makes going about things like daily chores, etc. joyful. You’re just in a good mood all the time, and the little things on a list don’t really matter all that much.
So yeah, the little things do make a difference, but having one bigger joy thing going for you can make up for smaller joy things.
Eh, so it suddenly seems like a lot of work to prioritize a joy list.
Dunno.
Anyway, I actually enjoy putting rubber gloves on and doing the dishes. It feels so clean and productive : ]

p.s. I guess what I was getting at is like, say if you don’t like where you’re living, and housework is at a 2, but then you move to a home you love, then the same housework is a 5 or a 6, because you’re so happy to take care if your nice new home. So in making an upgrade in a bigger thing, it automatically upgrades a bunch of smaller things in your life.

There are so many interesting comments and examples here. I want to share one of mine!

Last year (when I first did this exercise) I got a -5 on *Laundry*. There were convoluted reasons. I am one person but I was washing for 6, feeling like I NEEDED to give that support, but resenting the time, taken-for-granted perception. It was messing with my vibe on so many levels.

The key word here is ‘perspective’. I had two choices that I could see:

#1 Stop doing other ppl’s damn laundry
#2 Find a way to be happy doing other ppl’s damn laundry

I couldn’t deal with the guilt involved in stopping cold turkey, or stopping at all (the other people who could have done it had: new baby, shoulder surgery, were minors and couldn’t reach the controls, working double time . . . ) so, with Jeannette’s help, I changed my perspective.

Note: nIt didn’t shift overnight.

But I was able to take the charge off of it and over time not even be bothered at all.

Things I did to change my perspective included:

1) remember why I started doing the extra laundry in the first place (it feels good to help others)

2) ask myself “how do I serve?”

3) replace negative self talk (‘they don’t even care that I do this) with positive (‘I am helping the family thrive’)

4) count blessings (my body is healthy! I am grown up! I am strong! I have all the time in the world! I don’t have an infant to look after!) LOL

These thoughts slowly but surely generated more positive feelings and a shift in perspective.

And when they did, when there was no charge, that job was taken from me! Suddenly shoulders where healed, infants became toddlers and kids grew tall enough to reach all the buttons. Bottom line, they do their own laundry now (now that I no longer have a charge on it).

Laundry is a +10 for me, because every time I do my solo little load, I am reminded of all those positive thoughts, especially the one about “my thoughts are powerful creators!”.

Kim, I love your example! I think this could be true for just about anyone on just about anything … remove the negative charge by shifting perspective and it automatically gets an upgrade. Sort of like how Brian said “give IT a raise.”

I’ve also found laundry easy to enjoy doing when one of these things is true:

1) I’m out of clothes. I enjoy doing laundry when the results are immediately and strongly appreciable.
2) I’m washing clothes I love. Yet another good reason to Marie Kondo the wardrobe!

But what you’re really speaking to is the magic of the perspective shift. When we find a way to feel better about it (whatever it is), life gets better! It’s how law of attraction works.

I have not read all the replies, so I apologize if someone already posted this point of view. I find that some things on my list are things I cannot realistically eliminate from my life. Like aspects of my work I find to not be a +8, but they are part of the job. Or aspects of household chores are not a +8. I do however find that when I engage in more of the things that are a +8 and above I feel such joy inside that the feeling stays WHILE I am completing “chores” that fall lower on the scale. In other words, I am riding high on a feeling of 9 or 10 DURING an experience that by itself would normally fall below a zero.
That is how I manage to have a life where more of the time I am in the vibration of a +8. I know the exercise said to “get rid of the things below a +8” And great place to start is to do just that with the things we CAN get rid of without inviting in another thing that gets put on our list as below a +8. Beyond that I approach this more as a wake-up call to get rid of as much as possible of the things that fall on the negative end of the scale. When I engage in +8, +9, +10 a lot then completing necessary tasks that I would normally experience as a -5 or worse feel like something in the +range. Recently I was away on a trip out in Nature and completely in my element feeling +10 joy for hours at a time. Simultaneously I ended up being very ill to my stomach with horrible cramping, which is something I would normally rate a -2 or worse. But because I was riding that +10, my stomach issue faded into the background and went to a +7 in the combined experience.

Ultimately, we have the power to immediately raise the scale during any activity. Like while engaged in a -6 task while at work, I can pause and appreciate feeling great in my body, happy that I have a job, look forward to the evening’s anticipated dinner with a close friend, take a moment to make myself a favorite cup of tea and all of a sudden that work task went from feeling like a -6 to a +5 and I think that is a mighty nice shift.
We can of course also choose to shift the barometer in the other direction. Like when we look at this exercise and get upset that some things in our lives fall below a +8.

Lastly, I think having some things and moments when certain things feel like less than a zero and nowhere near a +8. Well that’s contrast and from there our wish to raise the scale is invoked.

one, This is the dare I’m issuing to my people at Play Church tomorrow and I’ll collect stories from the week and report. They’re pretty savvy creators and daring to boot. I’m pumped.

two, I’m in a place where I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do. I just realized that. Like I spend my day climbing mountains and writing sweet things and playing with people I love. So, I feel really proud of how clear my canvas is. I’m ready to rock the hooties out of this prompt and to enjoy the inquiry and my relationship to the things I choose to do. I can’t wait to discover and deepen the conversation with my own gorgeous existence!

Great Exercise Jeannette! Thanks so much for sharing this. Hopefully one day everyone will be following this instead of following the news. I have improved my own life so much .. by giving Gratitude and Love to the things I love…. and the things that give me little joy just fall off the end.

Hey Jeannette,
I have an LOA question. Let’s say you have this dream of becoming a world famous actress. You dream about it all the time, see yourself acting and living your dream lifestyle, but never take action on this dream. You set out to create a plan for achieving it years ago, but you haven’t actually done much acting at all. You don’t live and breathe acting. You love the idea of the dream, but the reality of all the industry and the work needed to get there deters you from actually pursuing it. How do you get over a dream like this? How can you more easily focus on what you truly want instead of wanting to be an actress when it is a symbol for something else? How do you line up with your true path? (Eg what you are effortlessly inspired to act upon.)

This story kindof gets to what you are asking. A man wants to manifest a dream red Ferrari. His coach asks why he wants the Ferrari. The more they dig deep the man realizes that the Ferrari represents FREEDOM and it is not the car, but freedom he wants. So the coach encourages him to get in the feeling of FREEDOM now (I think this might be an Abraham-Hicks story). The man decides to do a couple of things that makes him feel FREEDOM now. One is having tea parties with his 4 year old daughter. Another is he decides to not wear underwear. I forget what the third was. The point is he does these things and begins to vibrate the FREEDOM in the now resulting in the things he actually wants coming into his life. Maybe ask yourself what it is you want to be living that an acting career (living the life of a famous actress) represents? Perhaps it is a feeling of accomplishment? Fame? Recognition and validation? Fun of playing a character? Only you can answer this, but when you figure out what FEELING it is you are after, from there finding a way to it will come easier and perhaps a new dream/idea of what that looks like will come to you? For me I know that if I do not feel inspired action coming, then I am not really in-love with whatever dream I have going on. Hope this helps 🙂

So I just have to do things that feel freeing, happy, and empowering? Even if they have no relation to acting? And maybe I will line up with inspiration to further my acting career, or maybe I will end up never getting it but something else instead? To be honest the idea of never becoming a famous career actress really feels awful…in that case i’d rather transition early so I’ll get what I want upon death.

It was not my intention to imply you should give up on or modify your dream of becoming an actress at all. I was addressing this part of your post: “How can you more easily focus on what you truly want instead of wanting to be an actress when it is a symbol for something else?” In my story the Ferrari represented something the man wanted. A feeling he would have when he drive this Ferrari. Once he realized what the Ferrari symbolized he found ways to live it “in the now,” which then has to bring it into reality. And this reality could very well come in the form of the red Ferrari.

I was going to write a long ass post in gvu about, hmmm, could I quit my high paying job, that puts me at about a 2 most of the time I’m there.

That would be the king of Life Upgrades for me, but then with my 2,300 san diego rent, that would mean my current savings leaves me with about 9 months of living expenses, and not knowing if the things that I would want to do that thrill me, would start producing the income after those 9 months ( and that’s muggle-thinking I know ).
There is of course moving to a cheaper place, but then that action would scream to me: scarcity! not enough!..
But I could drop other things like grocery shopping to improve my weekends at least, but still looking for a way to do that, haven’t found it. Great post, Jeannette, about vibe management.

A benefit from what I see in this exercise reminds me of Abraham’s place mat process. By writing down what you need to do or plan to do then eliminating it is like leaving it to the Universe not just raising your vibration through this process. People should find that when the time comes Universe will inspire you to effortless action that brings much fruit or the thing will take care of itself. Like Bashar always says, just be in the moment and choose the most exciting thing to do. Life will flow wonderfully!

Hi Jeannette,
I’m writing in response to your query about succeeding in upgrading ones vibration. It’s a process. It’s a habit. It takes time. It takes practice. It’s an evolution. It’s a way of living that can be integrated into ones life. Perhaps the original post suggested more of an immediate result?

I’ve practiced using “hell yes” as an indicator in my life. Let’s face it, we all know when something feels like “hell yes” and when it does not. So, I do my best to lean toward that feeling in my life. Started with little things that were easy. Practiced saying no thank you, to actions that didnt feel great. It’s become a habit. My suggestion – pay attention to how you feel, listen to your feeling, start small, integrate practice into your life, be gentle on yourself and learn to trust that all is well!

I’ve been thinking about this idea all weekend and this morning it occurred to me that using the polarity method of picturing a pole or a lever with +10 at the top and -10 at the bottom and just mentally pushing that lever to the top (or in this case at least to +8!)might be a good way to change how we’re feeling about any given task. Choosing to change the polarity of each item on our list. Giving all of those tasks a lever of their own, like a big sound mixing board.

Last week I ran out of these little scrubbing refill thingies to scrub the toilet with. Toilet scrubbing is definitely NOT a +8 on my list. Maybe not a minus since I don’t hate cleaning but still not too high on the list. At the time the toilet was clean and I just didn’t think about it again until I went in a few days later to clean the bathroom. Then I remembered we were out of them. Then I forgot to pick them up at the store, and the next store I went to didn’t have them. By the time I got them yesterday I was almost excited to be able to scrub the toilet. And then this morning it hit me, okay there ARE times when this is more than a +1. And THAT helped me push the lever up on some other things. I’ve been mentally pushing the levers up to the high point all morning. Feeling pretty good about some tasks I usually would rather avoid (yes, like taxes!).

About 3 years ago I did something similar to this. I don’t remember anyone suggesting it. I believe it just came to me through inspiration. I wrote everything I was doing and rated it from 1 to 10. I wanted to make sure I was doing what I enjoyed or felt good. I forgot until now! I received an email from Jeanette to make a comment. It was fun to get such an email so I was like, okay :). I can see how this process seems unrealistic, but doesn’t LOA sometimes? Doing this process, put my life in perspective and I think it can do the same for you :). You can feel confident your moving in a feel good direction or not. I suggest you do what will feels best. Maybe it’s cutting out the ones marked with your lowest number or maybe it’s figuring out a way so that you can do more of your highest numbers. This process like all things from LOA are suggestions. You decide if it will make your life better. Sometimes we forget LOA is about feeling good not processes 😉 unless they feel good. If you really want to give this process a go, maybe do it for one day. BTW, I would rate writing this comment a 10+. All of you are so wonderful and GVU and Jeanette bring me relief in times I am scared or worried. Love you all.

P.s. I didn’t read the comments for this blog post. Sorry if I’m being repetitive. Today it didn’t sound like fun 😉 lol.

Oooh this is way cool! I once heard Esther say that you mustn’t do anything you don’t want to do and I’ve lived by it – apart from feeding the kids of course. But the converse has applied too. At times I had “no choice” but to do things, I’ve tried to look for ways to make myself feel better about it, and I ended up falling in love with it. It’s easy to go from no-food-in-the-house to being grateful for your awesome blender, homegrown herbs, heartthrob casserole, huge kitchen and gorgeous family to cook for, and then enjoying the process. After 13 years without, we just got a new car (ie. got to work 40% harder to fund it) on Saturday, something we started pray rain journaling about on 26 December.So I’d recommend thinking through the whole process of the items that rank under an 8. What’s cool about grocery shopping? How can you MAKE it cooler to push it up to an 8? Hubby and I usually go for a special ice-cream beforehand, or I buy something special… gotta have a bit of retail therapy in the process, no? 😉

Sorry, so excited that I’m not thinking properly. What I meant was that while “in the real world” one has to work harder to fund the car, it also opens SO MANY new possibilities for better life experiences, that working or manifesting or winning the lotto is so much easier. Looking at the positives in whatever it is you “don’t want to do”, can actually inspire you to change your outlook.

Great article!! I think this is a great way of letting us see the big picture and which areas in our life need some LOA loving. Just imagine how great it will feel when your list truly does only consist of 8+ items 🙂